Senate leaders abandon effort to pass climate change bill until fall

By Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Senate leaders acknowledged today they have no chance of passing a comprehensive climate change bill any time soon, saying they would abandon the effort for the time being and take it up again in the fall.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, standing with Majority Leader Harry Reid, and White House energy advisor Carol Browner, said a year of work had still not produced a deal that could gain GOP support.

"We've always known from day one that to pass comprehensive energy reform, you've got to have 60 votes," said Kerry, who has led the effort in the Senate on a "cap-and-trade’’ bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions. "As we stand here today we don't have one Republican vote."

The House passed an energy bill last year, but the Senate’s filibuster rules have prevented it from acting.

The Senate will consider a stripped down bill with provisions responding to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf, expanding the use of natural gas in long-haul trucks, and increase spending on land and water conservation, Reid said.

Here is an edited transcript of Kerry's remarks on the issue today:

“Over the past year and a half working with Leader Reid, we’ve had hundreds of meetings and negotiations and we have built an unprecedented coalition of support which has moved us further along in this process than at any time in this effort. Today, we have support from industries and stakeholders that have opposed previous bills, and that is a very, very important achievement.

“But we’ve always known from day one, that in order to pass comprehensive energy/climate legislation, you’ve got to reach 60 votes, and to reach those 60 votes, you’ve got have some Republicans. And as we stand here today, we do not have one Republican. I think that it’s possible to get there.

“Even this morning, Senator Lieberman and I had a meeting with one Republican who has indicated a willingness to begin working towards something. Harry Reid, today, is committed to giving us that opportunity, that open door over the next weeks, days, months, whatever it takes to find those 60 votes.

“The work will continue every single day. In the meantime, as Senator Reid has just said, we have an obligation to the American people, we have an obligation to our country. And that is to respond to the oil spill in the Gulf. And that’s why Senator Reid is going to bring this admittedly narrow, limited bill to the floor because he’s determined to do what we can in the timeframe that we have before the August break that will address some of our energy independence and some of the oil spill issues.

“Now let me be crystal clear. As Senator Reid said, this legislation that he has proposed does not replace climate legislation. It does not replace comprehensive energy legislation. Now President Obama called me before this meeting and said point blank that he is committed to working in these next days at a more intensive pace together with Carol Browner and other members of the administration to help bring together the ability to find sixty votes for that comprehensive legislation. And the leader is committed to getting that comprehensive legislation to the floor as soon as possible, whenever that might turn out to be.

“Senator Lieberman and I will continue to work with our colleagues and the stakeholders in order to carve a path to sixty votes for comprehensive legislation that appropriately targets, in an appropriate way, carbon, so that we can send signals to the marketplace and change the direction and create jobs for America and improve our security. The work we’ve done over the last year and a half will remain a foundation for all of this effort.

“I just want to say to all of you on a personal level, that you know I watched Ted Kennedy over 26 years fight to get tough things passed. And in 1970 he began that effort to pass health care reform. We just got it this year. This is not going to take that long. This is not going to take close to that long. I am absolutely confident that as the American people make their voices heard and as our colleagues go home and listen to them we’re going to grow in our ability to pass this.